Ortega y Gasset and Adorno on Debussy: from the ‘dehumanisation of art’ to the rhetoric of subjectivity

In this paper, my focus is on a selection of writings by José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) and Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969). Although not primarily remembered for their engagement with Debussy’s music, both philosophers acknowledged the French composer’s crucial historical role as the initiator of ‘new music’ in a number of texts, such as Ortega’s Musicalia (1921) and La deshumanización del arte (1925), and Adorno’s Philosophie der neuen Musik (1949). Interestingly, in spite of the
obvious differences between their philosophical approaches, outlooks, and modes of presentation, their views on Debussy appear related not only by the common perception of a genetic link between Debussy and Stravinsky, but also by the shared
appraisal of the former as an early exponent of the ‘dehumanisation’ of (modern) art – in the peculiar sense given to the phrase by Ortega, which, mutatis mutandis, finds its counterpart in Adorno’s critique of the extinction of subjective Erlebniszeit (‘experiential time’) and the eventual collapse of Bergsonianism in the Franco-Russian line of musical development.
My purpose is (1) to address the implications of both thinkers’ contributions for our understanding of Debussy’s musical language, and in particular, (2) to search for evidence of a ‘dehumanised’ stance in Debussy’s work, in its concrete
musical configurations (with special reference to the late works) – the aim being to bring together philosophical, hermeneutic and analytical perspectives on musical subjectivity and anti-subjectivity, through (although not exclusively by means of) the
identification and interpretation of specific music-textual devices in the composer’s oeuvre, including the externalisation of sound images and the disintegration of discursive models of musical form. My research is, in part, informed by the existing
literature on the theme of musical subjectivity and the (de)construction of ‘voice’, especially the work of Carolyn Abbate, Michael Steinberg and Lawrence Kramer